World's Biggest Pilgrimage
Now Underway, And Why You've Never Heard of it!

It's not the Muslim Hajj, or the Hindu Kumbh Mela.. Known asArbaeen,
it is the world's most populous gathering and you've probably
never heard of it! Not only does the congregation exceed the
number of visitors to Mecca (by a factor of five, in fact), it
is more significant than Kumbh Mela, since the latter is only
held every third year. In short, Arbaeen dwarfs every other
rally on the planet, reachingtwenty
million last year. That is a staggering %60 of Iraq's entire
population, and it isgrowingyear
after year.

Above all, Arbaeen is unique because it takes place against the
backdrop of chaotic and dangerous geopolitical scenes. Daesh
(aka 'Islamic State') sees the Shia as theirmortal
enemy, so nothing infuriates the terror group more than the
sight of Shia pilgrims gathering for their greatest show of
faith.

There's another peculiar feature of Arbaeen. While it is a
distinctivelyShiaspiritual
exercise, Sunnis, evenChristians,
Yazidis, Zoroastrians, and Sabians partake in both the
pilgrimage as well as serving of devotees. This is remarkable
given the exclusive nature of religious rituals, and it could
only mean one thing: people regardless of color or creed see
Hussein as a universal, borderless, and meta-religious symbol of
freedom and compassion.

Why you have never heard of it probably has to do with the fact
that the press is concerned more with negative, gory, and
sensationalized tabloids, than with positive,inspiringnarratives,
particularly when it comes to Islam. If a few hundred
anti-immigration protestors take to the streets in London and
they will make headlines.. The same level of airtime is awarded
to a pro-democracy march in Hong Kong or an anti-Putin rally in
Russia.. But a gathering of twenty million in obstreperous
defiance of terror and injustice somehow fails even to make it
into the TV news ticker! An unofficial media embargo is imposed
on the gargantuan event despite the story having all the
critical elements of an eye-catching feature; the staggering
numbers, the political significance, the revolutionary message,
the tense backdrop, as well as originality.. But when such a
story does make it through the editorial axe of major news
outlets, it creates shockwaves and touches the most random
people.

Among the countless individuals inspired by it, is a young
Australian man I met several years ago who had converted to
Islam. Evidently, no one takes such a life-altering decision
lightly, so upon inquiry he told me it all started in 2003. One
evening, as he was watching the news only to be drawn by scenes
of millions streaming towards a holy city known asKarbala,
chanting the name of a man he had never heard of: "Hussein". For
the first time in decades, in a globally televised event, the
world had caught an glimpse into previously suppressed religious
fervor in Iraq.

With the Sunni Ba'athist regime toppled, Western viewers were
eager to see how Iraqis would respond to a new era free from
dictatorship persecution. The 'Republic of Fear' had crumbled
and the genie had irreversibly escaped from the bottle. "Where
is Karbala, and why is everyone heading in its direction?" he
recalls asking himself. "Who is this Hussein who motivates
people to defy all the odds and come out to mourn his death
fourteen centuries after the fact?"

What he witnessed in that 60-second report was especially moving
becausethe
imagerywas
unlike any he had ever seen. A fervent sense of connection
turned human pilgrims into iron filings, swarming together other
as they drew closer to what could only be described as Hussein's
irresistible magnetic field. "If you want to see a living,
breathing, lively religion, come to Karbala" he said.

How could a man who was killed 1396 years ago be so alive and
have such a palpable presence today that he makes millions take
up his cause, and view his plight as their own? People are
unlikely to be drawn into a dispute (much less one that
transpired in ancient times) unless they have a personal
interest in the matter. On the other hand, if you felt someone
was engaged in a fight over your right to freedom, your
prerogative to be treated justly, and your entitlement to a life
of dignity, you would feel you had a vested interest and would
empathize with him to the point where conversion to his beliefs
is not a far-fetched possibility.

The Ultimate Tragedy

Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is revered by
Muslims as the "Prince of Martyrs". He was killed in Karbala on
a day which became known as Ashura, the tenth day of the Islamic
month of Muharram, having refused to pledge allegiance to the
corrupt and tyrannical caliph, Yazid.

Shia Muslims have since mourned the death of Hussein, in
particular on the days of Ashura, then, forty days later, onArbaeen.
Forty days is the usual length of mourning in many Muslim
traditions. This year, Arba'een falls on Friday 12 December.

Long Trek

I travelled to Karbala, my own ancestral home, to find out for
myself why the city is so intoxicating. What I witnessed proved
to me that even the widest-angle camera lens is too narrow to
capture the spirit of this tumultuous, yet peaceful gathering.

An avalanche of men, women and children, but most visibly
black-veiled women, fill the eye from one end of the horizon to
the other.The crowds were so huge that they caused a blockade
for hundreds of miles.

The 425 mile distance between the southern port city of Basra
and Karbala is a long journey by car, but it's unimaginably
arduous on foot. It takes pilgrims a full two weeks to complete
the walk. People of all age groups trudge in the scorching sun
during the day and in bone-chilling cold at night. They travel
across rough terrain, down uneven roads, through terrorist
strongholds, and dangerous marshlands. Without even the most
basic amenities or travel gear, the pilgrims carry little
besides their burning love for "The Master" Hussein. Flags and
banners remind them, and the world, of the purpose of their
journey:

O self, you are worthless after Hussein.
My life and death are one and the same,
So be it if they call me insane!

The message recalls an epic recited by Abbas, Hussein's
half-brother and trusted lieutenant, who was also killed in theBattle
of Karbalain
680AD while trying to fetch water for his parched nieces and
nephews. With security being in the detrimental state that makes
Iraq the number one headline in the world, no one doubts that
this statement is genuine in every sense.

Free lunch.. And dinner, and breakfast!

One part of the pilgrimage which will leave every visitor
perplexed is the sight of thousands of tents with makeshift
kitchens set up by local villagers who live around the pilgrims'
path. The tents (called 'mawkeb') are places where pilgrims get
practically everything they need. From fresh meals to eat and a
space to rest, to free international phone calls to assure
concerned relatives, to baby diapers, to practically every other
amenity, free of charge. In fact, pilgrims do not need to carry
anything on the 400 mile journey except the clothes they wear.

More intriguing is how pilgrims are invited for food and drink.
Mawkeb organizers intercept the pilgrims' path to plead with
them to accept their offerings, which often includes a full
suite of services fit for kings: first you can a foot massage,
then you are offered a delicious hot meal, then you are invited
to rest while your clothes are washed, ironed, then returned to
you after a nap. All complimentary, of course.

For some perspective, consider this: In the aftermath of the
Haiti earthquake, and with worldwide sympathy and support, the
UN World Food Programmeannounceddelivery
of half a million meals at the height of its relief efforts..
The United States military, launched Operation Unified Response,
bringing together the massive resources of various federal
agencies and announced that within five months of the
humanitarian catastrophe,4.9
millionmeals had
been delivered to Haitians. Now compare that with over 50
million meals per day during Arbaeen, equating to about 700
million meals for the duration of the pilgrimage, all financed
not by the United Nations or international charities, but by
poor laborers and farmers who starve to feed the pilgrims and
save up all year round so that visitors are satisfied.
Everything, including security is provided mostly by volunteer
fighters who have one eye on Daesh, and another on protecting
the pilgrim's path. "To know what Islam teaches," says one
Mawkeb organizer, "don't look at the actions of a few hundred
barbaric terrorists, but the selfless sacrifices exhibited by
millions of Arbaeen pilgrims."

In fact, Arbaeen should be listed in the Guinness Book of World
Records in several categories: biggest annual gathering, longest
continuous dining table, largest number of people fed for free,
largest group of volunteers serving a single event, all under
the imminent threat of suicide bombings.

Unmatched Devotion

Just looking at the multitudes leaves you breathless. What adds
to the spectacle is that, as the security conditions worsen,
even more people are motivated to challenge the terrorist
threats and march in defiance. Thus, the pilgrimage isn't a mere
religious exercise, but a bold statement of resistance. Videos
have beenposted
onlineshowing
how a suicide bomber blows himself up in the midst of the
pilgrims, only to have the crowds turn out in even greater
numbers, chanting in unison:

If they sever our legs and hands,
We shall crawl to the Holy Lands!

The horrific bomb blasts which occur year-round, mostly
targeting Shia pilgrims and taking countless lives, illustrate
the dangers facing Shias living in Iraq, and the insecurity that
continues to plague the country. Yet the imminent threat of
death doesn't seem to deter people - young and old, Iraqis and
foreigners - from making the dangerous journey to the holy city.

It isn't easy for an outsider to understand what inspires the
pilgrims. You see women carrying children in their arms, old men
in wheelchairs, people on crutches, and blind seniors holding
walking sticks. I met a father who had travelled all the way
from Basra with his disabled boy. The 12-year-old had cerebral
palsy and could not walk unassisted. So for a part of the trek
the father put the boy's feet on top of his and held him by the
armpits as they walked. It is the kind of story out of which
Oscar-winning films are made, but it seems Hollywood is more
concerned with comic heroes and with real life heroes whose
superpower is their courage and commitment.

Golden Dome of Hussein

Visitors to theshrine
of Husseinand
his brother Abbas are not driven by emotion alone. They cry be
reminded of the atrocious nature of his death, in doing so, they
reaffirm their pledge to his ideals.

The first thing that pilgrims do upon reaching his shrine is
recite theZiyara,
a sacred text which summarizes the status of Hussein. In it,
they begin the address by calling Hussein the "inheritor" of
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. There is something
profound in making this proclamation. It shows that Hussein's
message of truth, justice, and love for the oppressed is viewed
as an inseparable extension of all divinely-appointed prophets.

People go to Karbala not to marvel at the city's landscape -
lush with date palms, or to admire the mausoleum's physical
beauty, or to shop, be entertained, or to visit ancient
historical sites. They go to cry. To mourn and experience the
angelic aura of Hussein. They enter the sacred shrine weeping
and lamenting the greatest act of sacrifice ever seen.

It is as though every person has established a personal
relationship with the man they have never seen. They talk to him
and call out his name; they grip the housing of his tomb; they
kiss the floor leading into the shrine; they touch its walls and
doors in the same manner one touches the face of a long-lost
friend. It is a picturesque vista of epic proportions. What
motivates these people is something that requires an
understanding of the character and status of Imam Hussein and
the spiritual relationship that those who have come to know him
have developed with his living legend.

If the world understood Hussein, his message, and his sacrifice,
they would begin to understand the ancient roots of Daesh and
its credo of death and destruction. It was centuries ago in
Karbala that humanity witnessed the genesis of senseless
monstrosities, epitomized in the murderers of Hussein. It was
pitch black darkness v. Absolute shining light, an exhibition of
vice v. a festival of virtue, hence the potent specter of
Hussein today. His presence is primordially woven into every
facet of their

Posted:02/12/2015
10:51 GMTUpdated:02/12/2015
10:59 GMT

Key to Defeating ISIS is this Religious Event

Revolutions, being upheavals of the most radical form, require
changes to take place at the root of a society's value system.
Given that Iraq was decidedly ruined on every conceivable level
by the former Baath regime, the political corruption gripping
the nation, as well as the unspeakable genocideries of ISIS,
undoing all of the damage requires a moral transfiguration.

So away from the lenses of sensationalist tabloid media began a
revolution of another, more authentic kind. One that would
restore values long buried under the smoldering rubble of vice
and immorality. CalledArbaeen,
this revolution is having a tremendous ripple effect in the
corridors of power as well as the lives of millions around the
globe.

The immediate political impact of Arbaeen can be gauged by the
fact that it represents the greatest act of defiance against
ISIS and other terrorists. Last year 24 million pilgrims swarmed
into Karbala over a period of two weeks, creating the world's
biggest annual pilgrimage. A human avalanche that leaves
analysts stunned and governments paralyzed.

Contrary to popular belief, Arbaeen did not commence after the
fall of Saddam. Rather, this monumental ritual has existed for
hundreds of years and grew in magnitude after the first gulf war
when the feeble regime relaxed its crackdown on Shia rituals to
focus on more pressing matters. Immediately millions of Iraqis
revived the ancient practice and filled the horizon as they
walked afoot for hundreds of miles to salute their spiritual
commander. Soon enough the dictator realized that he had made a
mistake. By lifting the ban, Saddam had unleashed a movement too
powerful to contain. Still, he struck with an iron fist,
arresting anyone found walking and shooting those trying to
stealthily make the forbidden voyage. Nevertheless, the
avalanche couldn't be stopped and the pilgrimage continued in
solid defiance, eventually crippling and abating theancien
régimein time
for the final blow which came in the form of the 2003 war. The
U.S. led invasion brought down an already hollow structure which
had been eviscerated by popular resistance for years.

Now, with terror gripping the world, and with so many
'solutions' on the table, I posit there is only one real, viable
antidote to the venom; the legend of Hussein, and Arbaeen as the
syringe. Below are some features of this colossal pilgrimage
which makes it uniquely placed to do just that;

1. All social and ethnic barriers come crumpling down in Arbaeen.
Nowhere else in the world is harmony and cohesion more tangible
than during this pilgrimage, where the sense of fraternity is
most salient. No other assembly is nearly as congruous or
melodious. Despite the inhospitable environment and lack of
basic services, the overriding feeling in Karbala is that of
unconditional love. The kind of love that makes total strangers
extend gratisservicesfit
only for kings.

2. After the fall of Mosul, Iraq's second largest and heavily
fortified city fell to ISIS overnight, another standoff later
stunned observers. The location was a tiny village north west of
the country calledAmerli.
Cordoned off from the rest of the country by ISIS forces, Amerli
resisted for over three months. Men as well as women turned out
to fight and eventually pushed back against ISIS, achieving
liberty. How could Mosul fall in a matter of hours while tiny
Amerli stands tall and defeats the enemy? The difference lies in
the fact that Amerli is an ethnically Turkmen, religiously Shia
village. It was the legend of Hussein which inspired them to
persevere, while Mosul practically embraced ISIS. Shias are all
too familiar with the menace of hewed off heads, murdered
children, hacked throats, and captive women. We have been
abominating these acts to which Hussein and his camp were
subjected to for over a millennium. That is what has turned the
Shia into the staunchly non-conformist global community of
devotees, willing to battle terror at the merest beck and call
of our religious leaders.

3.
In a world grappling with a sharp rise in people fleeing wars as
refugees, Arbaeen pilgrims and their Iraqi hosts exhibit such
generosity that must serve as an example to the West. In this
crisis, let the world look at the inclusive policy vis-à-vis
Arbaeen pilgrims and the unparalleled embrace of foreigners, as
an emancipatory defiance of the borders in the North, ever
immobilizing victims of capitalist expansionism and imperial
militarism. Isn't it ironic that members of non-Muslim
minorities, including Christians, Assyrians, Yazidis, and Sabean
Mandaeans, who were viciously exposed to the ethnic cleansing
campaign launched by ISIS, have long participated in and
contributed to this annual march?

The war with ISIS is not an internal conflict. Despite the
wishes of some pundits and politicians, it cannot be dismissed
as a mere civil war. It is a battle between the genuine Islam
embodied in its founder and appointed heirs, versus a
counterfeit Islam in the form of Salafi militancy. An Islam that
takes the appearance of the real thing, adopting its slogans and
insignia, but is devoid of its original values. An Islam that
refers to the greatest and most recurring Quranic verse "In the
name of God the beneficent, the merciful" yet they exhibit
anything but beneficence and mercy.

This
is the truest manifestation of an autoimmune disorder, where the
body attacks itself; to destroy Islam by using Islam itself.
This, of course, isn't exclusive to our faith. Anything of value
will inevitably have counterfeits emerge at the hands of
opportunistic impostors. But in our case, the antagonists are an
apocalyptic movement that began in the time of the Prophet
Mohammad himself, when he warned about "hypocrites" who appear
like the true adherents of the faith, but harbor no faith
internally. An entire chapter of the Quran was revealed about
the hidden dangers of these duplicitous liars who wreak havoc
under the guise of being Muslim.

Why should the world take notice? Because what happened in Paris
was a small glimpse of what these monstrous beasts are capable
of. If they get their way, they will slaughter your infants and
carry their tiny heads on spikes. They will butcher your men and
enslave your women. How do we know this? Because their
ideological ancestors have committed these same gruesome
atrocities against none other than the family of the Prophet.
They murdered his grandson Hussein in cold blood while chanting
'Allah Akbar', an Islamic slogan hijacked for a sinister cause.
They severed the head of his infant son as they cheered in mad
hysteria!

It was Saladdin, the twelfth-century Tikrit-born Sunni warrior
who conquered Jerusalem, yet before marching toward the Roman
enclave, he massacred hundreds of thousands of Shias in both
Fatimid Egypt as well as Abbasid Syria. Much like today, the
road to the Christian West, must cut through Muslim blood.

By risking death, Arbaeen pilgrims are exposing this menace. The
millions who march are echoing calls we have been making for
centuries; that Wahhabism is a ominous evil which attempts to
conquer and control in the name of Islam. If left unchecked, it
will burn the world to the ground without so much as blinking.
No matter how much serpentine Western politicians tell us they
are "our allies", they are nothing but raving wolves in sheep's
skin. The banner of Islam needs to be re-appropriated to its
rightful bearers and these impostors must be held to account.

The gravitational pull of Hussein, a man killed 1400 years ago,
is so strong that it travels along the earth's axis. From
Auckland, New Zealand to Vancouver, Canada, and in every nation
in between.. Pockets of people commemorate his tragedy and
travel to one of the world's most dangerous countries to
reconnect with Hussein and visit his mausoleum.

They do so to reclaim the black attire, which for long has been
worn to sympathize with the oppressed, not to intimidate them.
To relieve the trauma of loss, not to cause them. Which is why,
the grimmer the threat of ISIS, the more crowded became the
paths towards Karbala. "If it rains Da'esh (ISIS), we will still
visit Hussein," reads asignpostinstalled
by pilgrims.

The pilgrims walk in their millions on the same path, towards
the same destination, motivated by the same cause; to defeat
immorality and hate, even if it costs them their lives. Just
like Hussein.

This is how I know ISIS will never win.

Note: For more on the legend of Hussein's epic martyrdom, watchthisor
read the recently released 'God's Sacrifice: The Epic Saga of
Hussein and His Legendary Martyrdom', availablehere.